Non-duality

I will always remember the one lesson during our teacher’s training course when we were told “If you accept the consequences of your actions, suffering stops.” This was a lesson that greatly shifted my perspective. Often we mourn the bad things that happen to us, sicknesses, losses and so on, but in that moment I realised the extent of how we are responsible for the things that happen to us. We could believe that it is “bad luck” that causes sickness and illness, but when I look around, this is actually often caused by our own actions – unhealthy diets, bad sleeping habits, insufficient rest.. The point emphasised in this reflection here, is not that we cannot live the life we wish to, the point here is – that we make decisions while being AWARE of the consequences. This means we will experience non duality at the moment of decision-making, fully conscious of the repercussions of our actions. This also means that we can experience non duality when consequences come, because we have already accepted them.

In small ways, I have experienced this shift in my life. Just last week I missed two classes from the Yoga Teaching Course as I had caught a cold. While deciding if I should go for class, I experienced many shifting thoughts of “Should I.. Should I not.. What if I miss something important.. But what if I make myself worse.. Plus I have a competition coming up.. But what if.. But what if..” But somehow how I eventually came to a decision is that I knew that my body was telling me something – you need rest, and I knew that for a fact. In that moment, I accepted all the consequences of that decision and immediately found peace. The point I have realised is that often it is not the decision itself that bothers us, and threatens our peace and stability. It is often duality, indecision, lack of clarity on what we ought to do, which voice to listen to, that causes disturbances in our mind.

Similarly, I teach students dance, and in school clubs, where I have students that I see regularly for 2-3 years, I commonly face the problem of lack of commitment. Within the context of my reflection in this post, I think this is actually an issue of duality. It has never bothered me if a student decided to quit dance (I always think it is better for someone who never wanted to be there in the first place), what REALLY bothers me if students stay in the club, but bring negative energy, negative comments, uncommitted attitudes, and yet still choose to stay. What is that about? Duality. A splitting of the self and its many desires, motivations etc.

I believe if we could each individually bring non-duality to our own lives, experiencing peace in our own individual lives, we will cease to cause disturbances in the lives of others, and perhaps spread more positive, peaceful energy to the world 🙂

Clarice

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